Cold weather blues are kicking in, and for the 30th winter in a row, I’m wondering why I still live in the People’s Republic of New York. The cold is putting yours truly in quite the grumpy mood. I’m feeling like the crabby old man yelling at kids to “get off my lawn” if they stand within six feet of green grass.
Between the cold, high taxes, and borderline socialist control of governments across the state, I consistently ask myself “why do we stay?”
Family is the one and only reason why we live in New York. That’s it. If I wrote a typical “pros and cons” list of leaving or staying, that one solitary word would be on the “pros” side of why we remain in New York.
Thankfully the Wright Brothers pioneered the beauty of flights and we could be back regularly to see family and friends.
Just like you, I’m so done with blustery conditions and basically hibernating from November until March. I feel like a prisoner living in New York, counting the days until our youngest graduates from high school.
Until then…..here’s some angry and joyous thoughts to round out this week’s “From the Newsroom” column.
* The National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League’s (NFL) “All Star” games are a joke and complete waste of time, especially seeing how the National Hockey League (NHL) got it right with its “4 Nations Face Off.” In essence, the best players from the United States, Canada, Finland, and Sweden compete in an Olympics-style tournament.
The winner will be decided Thursday night in Boston. America clinched a spot in the finals after literally and figuratively beating Canada. Fisticuffs flew in the first nine seconds of that game, with three fights breaking out in the time it took me to sneeze twice.
Ratings are up, fans are excited, and national pride is on the line during the round-robin tournament. No idea how other leagues can spice up their worthless All-Star Games. They most certainly could learn a thing or two from the NHL.
* It is shocking how low the mainstream media will go to twist the truth and bend logic to launch bombs against the Trump Administration and its allies. CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan basically suggested in an interview with Marco Rubio that the weaponization of free speech created a culture in Nazi Germany that led to the Holocaust. I can’t even believe I just typed that. "Well, he (Vice President JD Vance) was standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide," Brennan said, drawing a quick condemnation from Rubio.
"Free speech was not used to conduct a genocide. The genocide was conducted by an authoritarian Nazi regime that happened to also be genocidal because they hated Jews,” correctly countered Rubio.
* At the local level I served for nine years as the independently elected Erie County Comptroller. I made zero friends in that position. It was my mission to uncover fraud, waste, and abuse within the walls of government at the county level. The pushback was intense. I always wore that as a badge of honor, that it meant I was doing my job slashing the size of a big, bloated bureaucracy.
I’m floored at the massive level of anger and vitriol directed at Elon Musk and President Trump for their cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). They’re justifiably slashing ridiculous government spending, and desperate Democrats are crying foul over Musk having access to Social Security records.
Keep in mind that identifying and slashing government waste was an issue championed by both former Presidents Clinto and Obama. Since the slashing is being done by President Trump, radical progressives and left-wing lunatics are screaming bloody murder, then crawling in the fetal position while shedding tears of sadness.
This out-of-touch, knee jerk opposition is just one reason why President Trump crushed VP Kamala Harris at the ballot box. It will be the reason why Republicans will do well in the next midterm elections.
* It’s roughly one month until the first day of spring. March 20th, 2025, can’t come soon enough. Yes, I’ll be in a much happier mood with warmer weather and plenty of green grass to see across Suffolk County. Just stay off each other's lawns, and especially mine.